Media Advisory: Texas Comptroller Susan Combs Denies Exonerated Death Row Inmate Clarence Brandley Compensation for Ten Years of Wrongful Imprisonment on Texas Death Row

Media Advisory
May 17, 2011

Contacts:  Hooman Hedayati
                  Gloria    Rubac   

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs Denies Clarence Brandley Compensation for Ten Years of Wrongful Imprisonment on Texas Death Row; Texas Continues Its Denial to Innocent Men

A press conference will be held by Clarence Brandley and his supporters at 4:00 PM Wednesday, May 18, 2011, at the S.H.A.P.E. Center Harambee Building, 3903 Almeda, 77004 to denounce Texas’ denial of compensation for the ten years he wrongfully spent on death row.

In a letter dated May 12, 2011, the Texas Comptroller’s office sent a letter informing Clarence Brandley, who spent almost ten years on death row for a crime he did not commit, that his claim for compensation did not meet the actual innocence requirement of the Texas Code, Section 103.051(b-1).

Brandley was wrongfully convicted and sent to death row in 1981.  It wasn’t until 1987 that Special State District Judge Perry Pickett ruled after an evidentiary hearing in Galveston County that Brandley should be released or retried because “The litany of events graphically described by the witnesses, some of it chilling and shocking, leads me to the conclusion the pervasive shadow of darkness has obscured the light of fundamental decency and human rights.”

Brandley was finally released in 1990 (read bio).

Brandley‘s supporters, led by his brother Rev. Ozell Brandley, are planning a course of action to hold Texas accountable for its wrongful convictions, whether done because of prosecutorial misconduct by officials withholding exculpatory evidence or faulty eye witness identification.  

“This is a righteous cause to bring justice and have it work the way it is supposed to work. We will hold those public officials accountable for their actions of refusing compensation for those who were wrongfully imprisoned.  Their careers should be over if they cannot dispense justice. My brother Clarence and the families of the wrongfully convicted and well as the victims’ families deserve more. Clarence and my family have paid a high price for their injustice.” 

Representatives of civil rights and community organizations, including Witness to innocence, the National Black United Front, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, and others will be present Wednesday in support of Brandley’s claim for compensation.

A Spanish speaker will also make a statement and be available for interviews in Spanish.

Clarence Brandley: Lykos Was Wrong to Halt Hearing Into Death Penalty

Exonerated death-row inmate Clarence Brandley has published the following column in today's Houston Chronicle.

When Pat Lykos ran for the office of Harris County District Attorney, she promised that there would be a new day in the criminal justice system. However, she recently proved that she's just another part of the same good ol' boy system that wrongfully sentenced me to death.

I spent nine years, five months, and 23 days in prison, most of them on death row waiting for my date with the executioner. I went through two trials and received several execution dates before I was found to be innocent of the murder of Cheryl Ferguson, a 16-year-old high school student in Conroe. My story is similar to the stories of 137 other exonerated death-row prisoners across the country, including 12 Texans who were found to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt before their exonerations.

I was one of the two suspects taken in for questioning in connection with Cheryl Ferguson's murder. The deputy looked at both of us, saying, "One of you two is going to hang for this," before pointing at me. He said, "Since you're the n——-, you're elected."

In my first trial I faced an all-white jury. One juror refused to convict, causing a hung jury. He was met with a constant barrage of harassment and threats after the trial ended, ridiculed for being a "n——- lover." It took a second all-white jury to finally convict and sentence me to death in 1981. A year later it was revealed that the majority of the murder investigation's physical evidence had mysteriously disappeared while under police control. Witnesses also recanted their testimony, and my attorneys found out that investigators had coerced their stories. Finally, when the blatant racism of my first two trials was discovered, the FBI decided to intervene.

Since my exoneration nearly 20 years ago, I've been waiting for a simple apology from the state of Texas.

Last week, Harris County state District Judge Kevin Fine began a historic hearing on a pretrial motion to declare the Texas death penalty statute unconstitutional as applied because of a substantial risk that innocent people have been, and will continue to be, sentenced to death and even executed. However, in a rare move, Lykos ordered the prosecutors to not participate and "stand mute" during the legal proceedings. They later successfully petitioned the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to halt the hearing.

A thorough review of Texas' death penalty system is long overdue. Lykos is obviously apprehensive about the facts being presented in this hearing. She must know that they will show how easy it is to be wrongfully convicted.

For every nine people executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated, one person has been exonerated. The most recent death-row exoneration was Anthony Graves, who was released in October after spending 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

I was one of the lucky ones. No one knows how many of the more than 300 people awaiting execution on Texas' death row are innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. Even more disturbing, despite what Gov. Rick Perry and former Gov. George W. Bush might claim, no one can definitively say how many of the 464 people executed in Texas since 1982 were innocent. Some, like Cameron Todd Willingham, Carlos DeLuna and Claude Jones, did not get an adequate opportunity to prove their possible innocence. Unless we halt all executions and thoroughly review our broken capital punishment system, we will continue to convict — and possibly execute - innocent people.

Brandley is an exonerated death-row prisoner and a member of Witness to Innocence, a national organization of death row survivors and their loved ones. He lives in Conroe.

Death Penalty Opponents Speak Out - Clarence Brandley

Clarence Brandley, an African American man who lost ten years of his life on Texas death row due to a wrongful conviction, addressed the media on Dec. 9 at 10:00 AM at a press conference at the S.H.A.P.E. Community Center in response to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals shutting down a hearing on the unconstitutional use of the death penalty in Texas.

Brandley, a member of Witness to Innocence, responded to the unfounded charges of the Harris County District Attorneys' office who opposed the pretrial motion in the case of capital murder defendant John E. Green.

Arrested in 1980, Brandley and another Conroe High School janitor were questioned for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old high school volleyball player, Cheryl Ferguson. The deputy looked at the two men and pointed to Brandley, saying, "Well someone is going to hang for this and since you are the n * * * er, you're elected!" It was ten years and several execution dates later that Brandley finally won his freedom in 1990.

Also speaking was Lee Greenwood-Rollins whose son, Joseph Nichols, was wrongfully executed on March 7, 2007. She explained how Texas law and the Harris County District Attorney allowed her son to be convicted and executed for a murder he did not commit.

Click here to watch the Houston local2 coverage of the press conference on youtube.



Press conference pictures are posted on facebook.

Exonerated man speaks out about death penalty at community center

Protesters speak out against decision to shut down hearing on death penalty 

Click here to watch the full press conference video

Press Advisory: The 9th Annual March to End Executions

PRESS ADVISORY

October 24, 2008

Contacts: Gloria Rubac 713-503-2633

Dan Sharber 713-560-7227

The 9^th Annual March to End Executions to Focus on the Flaws of the Death Penalty in Texas; Exoneree Clarence Brandley to Speak along with Several Death Row Families

Hundreds of death penalty opponents will gather in Houston on Saturday, October 25, for the 9^th Annual March to End Executions. The march will kick off at 2:00 pm with a pre-rally at the S.H.A.P.E. Center’s Harambee building at 3903 Almeda.

The 2008 march will be lead by a new organization—Kids Against the Death Penalty (KADP) followed by the S.H.A.P.E. Center Council of Elders. Participants will be traveling from Austin, San Antonio, Dallas and the Rio Grande Valley. The Free Radicals Marching Band will accompany the march down Alabama Street.

The featured speaker at the main rally at S.H.A.P.E.'s "Our Park," 3815 Live Oak, will be Clarence Brandley who was released after almost 10 years of wrongful confinement on death row. The S.H.A.P.E. Center was the home of the Coalition to Free Clarence Brandley, which launched a public campaign to win Brandley’s freedom.

In a 1987 evidentiary hearing, State District Judge Perry Picket recommended that the Court of Criminal Appeals grant Brandley a new trial, declaring: “In the thirty years this court has presided over matters in the judicial system, no case has presented a more shocking scenario of the effects of racial prejudice, perjured testimony, [and] witness intimidation. . . .The continued incarceration of Clarence Lee Brandley under these circumstances is an affront to the basic notion of fairness and justice.”

Another featured speaker will be Connie Wright, the wife of Gregory Wright, scheduled to be executed on October 30 despite evidence of innocence. Also, the family of Jeff Wood will speak. Wood was sent to death row because of the law of parties despite never killing anyone. He received a stay of execution shortly before his August 21 execution date this summer.

This march has been held every year since 2000, a year when then-Governor George Bush was campaigning for the presidency and 40 people were executed.

In 2008, Texas has seen questionable cases involving actual innocence, the law of parties, foreign nationals executed but never given their consular rights and a case of a judge and a D.A. having a secret, long-term romantic affair while trying cases together.

Thus, the theme of this year’s march is: The Death Penalty—Guilty on All Counts! Shut It Down.” Organizers point out that the death penalty targets poor people and people of color, executes innocent people through misconduct and the Law of Parties, and does not deter crime in Texas.

-30-

Houston Chronicle: Anti-execution march moves to Houston

Houston Chronicle has an article about tomorrow's march to stop executions in Houston. For more directions and march information please visit: www.marchtostopexecution.org

Ex-death row inmates to take on Harris County's sentencing record

By ALLAN TURNER
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Former death row inmates Clarence Brandley and Kerry Max Cook will be keynote speakers Saturday at a Houston anti-death penalty march and rally expected to draw protesters from throughout the state and nation.

Normally held in Austin, the march, now in its eighth year, was moved to Houston to protest Harris County juries' record of leading the nation in assessing death sentences, said event organizer Gloria Rubac. Since executions were resumed 25 years ago, 102 killers from Harris County have been executed; 122 remain on death row.

The March to Stop Executions will assemble at 2 p.m. at Emancipation Park, 3018 Dowling, then proceed to SHAPE Center, 3815 Live Oak, for a 3:30 p.m. rally.

The theme of the event is "Celebrating Our Victories, Remembering Our Losses; Continuing the Fight for Abolition!"

Brandley, who was convicted of the August 1980 rape-murder of Cheryl Dee Ferguson, a 16-year-old volleyball player at Conroe High School, spent a decade on death row before prosecutors dropped charges against him. Investigators' failure to compare a Caucasian hair found on Ferguson's body with that of other possible suspects in the case was among presumed irregularities in the case cited by Brandley's advocates.

At the conclusion of an evidentiary hearing in October 1987, state District Judge Perry Picket called on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to grant Brandley a new trial. "The litany of events graphically described by the witnesses, some of it chilling and shocking, leads me to the conclusion the pervasive shadow of darkness has obscured the light of fundamental decency and human rights," he wrote.

After unsuccessfully appealing to stop a new trial, the prosecution dropped charges in October 1990.

Cook spent 22 years on death row after he was convicted of the 1977 rape-murder of Linda Jo Edwards, a Tyler woman. He was tried three times and twice condemned. After he won a new trial in 1993, Cook was freed from prison based on time served after he entered a no contest plea. Months later, DNA linked Edwards' murder to another man.